Low Rent 3D

July 20, 2010

Toy Story 3, Despicable Me, Avatar and a multitude of other current movies have embraced the freshly marketed and admittedly re-vamped third dimension of movies. I won’t take away from the technology used in these movies, I liked the way it looked. That said, does anyone remember the awesomeness that was cheap 3D glasses than came on cereal boxes in the early 90s? Those 3D glasses were wonderful, they let you see puzzles on the side of the box and made everything around you look blue and red. Sure they were shamelessly put there to entice children to beg for unnecessarily sugary cereals but nonetheless, wasn’t it fun?

Before 3D came back into fashion for Hollywood going to the cinema was not as complicated nor as expensive as it is now. Using 3D glasses at the theatre for a 3D show forces the price of tickets up. In addition, there seems to be a new rule that all children’s movies require a third dimension. I don’t mean to negate the progress of computer graphics but a generation of children raised on 3D computer drawn cartoons that feature characters moving at painfully quick speeds across choppy scenes will inevitably make classic cartoons even more a part of the past than they already are.

The high tech 3D of the 2000s is undeniably very nifty. Despite this, the cheap, quick and easy 3D of the 80s and 90s deserves a place, even if only for the sake of nostalgia. I won’t lie, I’d still buy a box of cereal with 3D glasses….wouldn’t you?